2.1. Tuetut laitteet

Debian does not impose hardware requirements beyond the requirements of the Linux or kFreeBSD kernel and the GNU tool-sets. Therefore, any architecture or platform to which the Linux or kFreeBSD kernel, libc, gcc, etc. have been ported, and for which a Debian port exists, can run Debian. Please refer to the Ports pages at http://www.debian.org/ports/s390/ for more details on S/390 architecture systems which have been tested with Debian GNU/Linux.

This document covers installation for the S/390 architecture using the Linux kernel. If you are looking for information on any of the other Debian-supported architectures take a look at the Debian-Ports pages.

2.1.2. zSeries and System z machine types

Since Debian Squeeze, support for booting in ESA/390 mode was dropped. Your machine needs to support the z/Architecture, 64-bit support is mandatory. The userland of the s390 port is still compiled for ESA/390, though. All zSeries and System z hardware is fully supported. S/390 support software is included from the kernel 3.1 development stream. The most current information about IBM's Linux support can be found at the Linux on System z® page on developerWorks.

2.1.3. PAV and HyperPAV

PAV and HyperPAV are supported transparently, multipathing is not needed to take advantage of these storage system features. Be sure to configure the devices during DASD device selection. The alias devices will not be offered neither for formatting, partitioning nor direct use.

2.1.4. Moniprosessorijärjestelmät

Multiprocessor support — also called ”symmetric multiprocessing” or SMP — is available for this architecture. Having multiple processors in a computer was originally only an issue for high-end server systems but has become quite common in recent years even for rather low-end desktop computers and laptops with the introduction of so called ”multi-core” processors. These contain two or more processor units, called ”cores”, in one physical chip.

The standard Debian 7.0 kernel image has been compiled with SMP support. It is also usable on non-SMP systems without problems.

2.1.5. Verkkolaitteet

Almost any network interface card (NIC) supported by the Linux kernel should also be supported by the installation system; drivers should normally be loaded automatically.